How to redirect between non-www and www URL in Apache

Websites are typically hosted on a URL that starts with or without www. The choice could be personal, though sometimes are required. Certain CDN, for example, requires a website to be hosted on a subdomain (www) to work.

Either way, you can configure your Apache to work on both with and without www and then automatically redirect your visitor from one to the other.

You can automatically redirect between www and non-www (also known as naked domain) versions of your website and vice versa using .htaccess file or Redirect directive in Apache's configuration file. You can configure redirection from the dashboard if you're hosting on cPanel.

1. Enable rewrite module for Apache.

   $ sudo a2enmod rewrite # Ubuntu, Debian and SUSE variants
   Enabling module rewrite.
   To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
     systemctl restart apache2

   • Distribution with a2enmod support can simply run the command above without having to manually enable the required modules.
   • CentOS and Red Hat enables the module by default so requires no manual action to enable the modules.

   Related: How to enable or disable Apache modules

   Options	Debian, Ubuntu	openSUSE and SLES	Fedora Core, CentOS, RHEL	macOS	homebrew	xampp
   a2enmod support	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
   Modules to install	none
   Module name	n/a			rewrite
   Loadmodule directive	n/a			LoadModule rewrite_module <module_locations>/mod_rewrite.so

2. Open or create a .htaccess file on the web folder where you want to set the redirection from.

   $ sudo vi /var/www/html/.htaccess

3. Add redirect directive from within the .htaccess file.

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^!simplified.guide$ [NC]
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.simplified.guide/$1 [R=301,L]

   301 is equivalent to permanent redirect and you can use 302 instead for temporary redirect.

4. Hard-reload the web page to test the redirect.

1. Enable rewrite module for Apache.

   $ sudo a2enmod rewrite # Ubuntu, Debian and SUSE variants
   Enabling module rewrite.
   To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
     systemctl restart apache2

   • Distribution with a2enmod support can simply run the command above without having to manually enable the required modules.
   • CentOS and Red Hat enables the module by default so requires no manual action to enable the modules.

   Related: How to enable or disable Apache modules

   Options	Debian, Ubuntu	openSUSE and SLES	Fedora Core, CentOS, RHEL	macOS	homebrew	xampp
   a2enmod support	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
   Modules to install	none
   Module name	n/a			rewrite
   Loadmodule directive	n/a			LoadModule rewrite_module <module_locations>/mod_rewrite.so

2. Open VirtualHost config that you want to set up the redirection from using your favorite text editor.

   $ sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

   Related: Location for Apache VirtualHost configuration

3. Add redirect directive within VirtualHost configuration.

   <VirtualHost *:80>
       ServerName simplified.guide
       Redirect permanent / http://www.simplified.guide/
   </VirtualHost>

   permanent is equivalent to 301 redirect and you can use temporary instead for 302 redirect.

4. Restart Apache for the changes to take effect.

   Related: How to manage Apache service